Mowing ..

[ford12]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

If you’ve already got decent cordless tools, this might be an ideal application for a battery powered mower skin.

Thanks for the reply.
Electrician at work swears by his Makita mower.
I can't bring myself to buy an electric mower.
It has to be petrol

[.:4:.]

For mowers, my personsal opinion is just go for a 4 stroke. Dont go for the cheapest, go one or 2 levels up, so still not overly expensive. But something with a suitable chassis and a motor where maintenance parts are available. My grandpa had a cox with a briggs and stratton motor. That was a good unit. I have a victa with a briggs and stratton, again a good unit for domestic work. So mine may only be a 2 blade, but for my domestic use its fine. 18' deck, 158cc, well its a decade or more old but was a tad shy of $300 new. Blades are cheap, same as the spark plug and oil, stuff you only change after a long time. Its not that hard to run down the servo to fill the petrol can.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by ford12

Thanks for the reply.
Electrician at work swears by his Makita mower.
I can't bring myself to buy an electric mower.
It has to be petrol

I've always had 4 stroke petrol mowers, then I bought a battery one..... self propelled as a bonus coz I'm lazy

I have a fair sized front and back lawn and would never go back to petrol.

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by ford12

Thanks for the reply.
Electrician at work swears by his Makita mower.
I can't bring myself to buy an electric mower.
It has to be petrol

Im an electician and also swear by makita, just not for lawn mowers.

[ford12]

Honda mowers any good ?
I'd.prefer something as light as possible.

[Tassie f100]

Originally Posted by FTE217

Nope nope and nope re cord tools and I’m struggling to be convinced re battery even though I got a small blower one that gave up the ghost recently for small light work.
I’m just on 1300sp/m home with heaps of bush surround/gums etc you can’t beat good petrol product period.
Suppose if you have a small yard the other options work.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah agree 1300 sq mtrs would be stretching the friendship for a cordless.Son in law has a Dewalt ,goes well,but only cuts about 40cm.Mate has a Ryobi which works alright,but not as good as the Dewalt

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by ford12

Honda mowers any good ?
I'd.prefer something as light as possible.

Honda's tend be heavier as most of them are cast alloy bases, not the lighter pressed steal. Now alloy wont rust but I can guarantee a steal base will outlast the engine.

Considering you have a smaller area, I would be aiming for an 18 inch steal base mower. I have used various 18'' Victa's for a long time, they are light and easy to move around smaller areas.

The Victa Corvette 100 or 200 would be a decent option, the 200 has a mulching function. Both have the same 140cc OHV 4-Stroke engine.
https://www.victa.com/au/en_au/produ...vette-100.html
https://www.victa.com/au/en_au/produ...vette-200.html

If you want a little more grunt, with the same base, the Corvette 300 comes with a 163cc version of the Briggs OHV engine.
https://www.victa.com/au/en_au/produ...vette-300.html

I recently got a friend a Corvette 300 and she is delighted with it.

These Victa's range from 26 - 31 kg.



By comparison, the Honda HRU19 is a $900 unit with an alloy 19'' base and a 33kg weight.
https://powerequipment.honda.com.au/...n/mowers/hru19

Avoid the steal based Honda's (HRN216's) as these were designed for American style lawns (thick and tall) and so don't cut low enough a feature bar blade which are less efficient for catching.
https://powerequipment.honda.com.au/...mowers/hrn216#!



If it was me, and considering the small space and need for light weight, I would go the Victa Corvette 200.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Tassie f100

Yeah agree 1300 sq mtrs would be stretching the friendship for a cordless.Son in law has a Dewalt ,goes well,but only cuts about 40cm.Mate has a Ryobi which works alright,but not as good as the Dewalt

Ooh I dunno, we're on almost 1000sq m and ours does alright, depending on how long the grass is as to whether it will do front and back on one charge.

We've got a Ego EGO 56V Brushless 18"

[Tassie f100]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

Ooh I dunno, we're on almost 1000sq m and ours does alright, depending on how long the grass is as to whether it will do front and back on one charge.

We've got a Ego EGO 56V Brushless 18"

Sorry made a generalisation about battery mowers.I am thinking the cheaper $3-500 jobs not the $1000+ size.I know there are battery powered ride ons for $4-10 thousand which apparently are pretty good!but then again a $10,000 zero turn petrol is a pretty good bit of gear

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by ford12

Hello all
Great thread.
I'm looking for a new mower, what does everyone recommend ?
Will only be used for home use and lawn area is relatively small. Approx 150 m
Thanks

...I'd say you are spoiled for choice these days ..Last week I visited our local Mitre 10 and at the store front there were about 10 mowers ranging in price from $299 I think to $550 . There were Yard Force , Masport , Makita that I recall .. The more expensive one was self propelled and the $299 one was a basic Yard Force . The Makita I think was somewhere mid range priced and was identical to my own 140 cc Makita , one of a few I have ..

In your case if you only have a smallish area to maintain It might be worth considering a battery pack unit ..They just keep getting better all the time ..

Just have a good old shop around and no doubt you'll find something pretty decent without going far outside your budget ...

[ford12]

Do all the mowers these days have only a basic throttle control, it seems it's either idle or fast for cutting.
im a lawn freak and love my tall fescue.
I would have thought having the blades spinning as fast as you want / need would give a better cut.
Not sure if I like having virtually no control over rpm.
Or is it a case of there revving as fast as possible any way.
Not sure if I should just keep the old Rover going,

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

Im an electician and also swear by makita, just not for lawn mowers.

Fair enough comment I expect ..Also a fan of Makita stuff and own a brushless drill/driver kit , brushless reciprocating saw , blower , sander , corded hammer drill , etc and likely to be adding more beaut tools as I go ... Two years ago on the spur of the moment I bought a basic Makita lawn mower for less than $400 at Mitre 10 .. It's the petrol 140 cc model... Never caused me any issues yet but granted it hasn't been given a hard time . It's nothing special compared to other brands but until it breaks I'll reserve my judgement on their mowers ..It's a nice looking mower for sure and I love the comfort grip handles..Cheers...

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by ford12

Do all the mowers these days have only a basic throttle control, it seems it's either idle or fast for cutting.
im a lawn freak and love my tall fescue.
I would have thought having the blades spinning as fast as you want / need would give a better cut.
Not sure if I like having virtually no control over rpm.
Or is it a case of there revving as fast as possible any way.
Not sure if I should just keep the old Rover going,

The last of the 148cc / 158cc side valve Briggs and Stratton engines had very little throttle control.

The newer OHV Briggs engines (like on the Victa I posted above) have a more noticeable graduation from idle to full throttle.

Having said that, newer generation lawn mowers don't rev as hard as older engines. A lot of that would be for emissions and safety. You can always make a little tweak to get a few more revs while not harming the engine.

Tall fescue is easier to cut than say Kikuyu so added hp or revs is not as crucial.

[Citroënbender]

Sorry to butt in, just a quick one.

I’ve got the new filter for my Shindaiwa trimmer, it’s fine fibrous cloth in a plastic frame the size of a matchbox. Do these go in bone dry or lightly oiled? Whenever I cleaned the old one with degreaser spray and a hot rinse, it seemed to have residual oil at the edges that wicked back into it.

[GasoLane]

Interesting statement from Planet Ark Founder

"Push to ban petrol powered lawn mowers and leaf blowers"


https://www.9news.com.au/national/pu...5-8c4c2fa41681

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

Interesting statement from Planet Ark Founder

"Push to ban petrol powered lawn mowers and leaf blowers"


https://www.9news.com.au/national/pu...5-8c4c2fa41681

Hmmmm, realistically its 1 day per fortnight for a normal person who does their own lawn on a weekend, and for a 9 to 5 person, they're typically not going to be doing the lawns at 6am on a sunday when you can sleep in. Lawn mowing contractors typically do have better/quieter equipment then your average joe, and do lawns during the week when people are typically at work. Also proffesionals take less time. Not so much with blowers or whipper snippers, the majority of semi modern mowers are 4 strokes so are a fair bit quieter. So the noise polution side of things i thing is a tad bit far fetched. The exhaust polution, yes petrol powerd gardening equipment do not (or from my experience) use cat converters, but theyre all low capacity engines, so its not like if you start a mower a whale dies.
The other angle from environmentalism. Lithium ion batteries arent the greatest for the environment to manufacture. They do last a very long time if maintained. However if its say for a piece of equipment that someone uses ever 2 weeks during summer, then sits for 8 weeks during winter as the grass doesnt grow, their lifespan will deminish faster. And disposale of lithium ion batteries also is not good for the environment.

[hayseed]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

Interesting statement from Planet Ark Founder

"Push to ban petrol powered lawn mowers and leaf blowers"


https://www.9news.com.au/national/pu...5-8c4c2fa41681

Pretty sure they've banned 2 Stroke outboard Motors, Mowers & brushcutters will be Next..

[Tassie f100]

So some “expert” reckons there are more emissions from a petrol leaf blower in 1 hour than 20 hours driving a car from Melb to Brisbane.So more from less than .5 litre of petrol compared to at least 100 litres.Obviously some peoples numbers work differently to mine.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by hayseed

Pretty sure they've banned 2 Stroke outboard Motors, Mowers & brushcutters will be Next..

Don't forget that this is Kalifornia, where 99% of everything has to have a 'may cause cancer' warning on it.

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by hayseed

Pretty sure they've banned 2 Stroke outboard Motors, Mowers & brushcutters will be Next..

Just for interests sake i looked into tha manual for my 2003 model 4.3L mpi v6 mercruiser thats in my boat. And also downloaded the manual for the current 4.3L v6 mpi mercruiser. The book for mine makes zero mention of a catylyst in the exhaust, the manwell of the current ones do. My boat has a sticker on it saying it gets a 3 star california rating. Apparently thats 65% less emmisions then a 1 star rating. Oddly enough, the iron block 2 valve pushrod v6 in my boat was a dinosaur in 2003, yet the 2021 model is the same, just with cats. Same power output claims at 220hp and same 4800rpm rev limiter.
I do rememberaybe 15 years ago reading an article in the paper that was probably due to a slow news day claiming that the smog, so poluted fog on cold days, was 100% due to 2 stroke gardening equipment and 2 stroke outboards.

[xkxlxm]

116. I've built up quite a 'collection' of edge trimmer cord, picking up the discarded, throw-away remnants as I walk along, keeping an eagle eye on the nature strip, road and gutter - mainly the gutter. Green, dark red, dark blue, light blue, yellow, orange, grey, clear, orange/grey, clear/grey; a rare purple; cord with a twist, or a square profile, but most are a plain round profile; thick and thin cord. Overflowing from my 825g SPC apricots tin, the colours and tangled mess reminds me of a bag of snakes - the snakes we eat. Sometimes there is one long piece but mostly there are few small bits.

Today I hit the jackpot. On a corner block, 116 fragments of fluoro orange. The longest is 15mm; the smallest are tiny, tiny pieces 1mm long. At least the fluoro orange made it easy to see.

I wonder if it would be possible to calculate the amount of edge trimmer cord, by weight and number of fragments, that flows into the creeks, rivers and oceans in one day.

[Citroënbender]

Have you seen the allegedly biodegradable trimmer line offered by a couple of brands? If they could make it in an aggressive and durable cross-section, I’d be happy to pay a premium.

[danzvtil]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

Interesting statement from Planet Ark Founder

"Push to ban petrol powered lawn mowers and leaf blowers"


https://www.9news.com.au/national/pu...5-8c4c2fa41681

My local ABC radio has been discussing this for 2 days now, and the argument is moot, petrol powered small machines are being replaced by viable battery alternatives, and not just for home use, even us professionals are getting in on it. We just need to reach a tipping point, which is different depending on where you live in the world.

[slowsnake]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

Have you seen the allegedly biodegradable trimmer line offered by a couple of brands? If they could make it in an aggressive and durable cross-section, I’d be happy to pay a premium.

I used 316 SS braided cable, get it from any marine supplier, just wear steel cap boots, if it gets tangled in wire fencing it don't snap, just stops the machine, have to be careful with it, its very vicious!

[slowsnake]

Originally Posted by xkxlxm

116. I've built up quite a 'collection' of edge trimmer cord, picking up the discarded, throw-away remnants as I walk along, keeping an eagle eye on the nature strip, road and gutter - mainly the gutter. Green, dark red, dark blue, light blue, yellow, orange, grey, clear, orange/grey, clear/grey; a rare purple; cord with a twist, or a square profile, but most are a plain round profile; thick and thin cord. Overflowing from my 825g SPC apricots tin, the colours and tangled mess reminds me of a bag of snakes - the snakes we eat. Sometimes there is one long piece but mostly there are few small bits.

Today I hit the jackpot. On a corner block, 116 fragments of fluoro orange. The longest is 15mm; the smallest are tiny, tiny pieces 1mm long. At least the fluoro orange made it easy to see.

I wonder if it would be possible to calculate the amount of edge trimmer cord, by weight and number of fragments, that flows into the creeks, rivers and oceans in one day.

Well done, need more folk like you, I pick up rubbish in the street, most of it in shopping centre external footpaths, mostly lolly wrappers, bins every 30 feet!....makes you wonder!....about people...

[slowsnake]

Originally Posted by danzvtil

My local ABC radio has been discussing this for 2 days now, and the argument is moot, petrol powered small machines are being replaced by viable battery alternatives, and not just for home use, even us professionals are getting in on it. We just need to reach a tipping point, which is different depending on where you live in the world.

Has bugger all to do with air pollution, but everything to do with "noise pollution"
Personally I hate noisy mowers, leaf blowers ( in confined spaces ) as in courtyards with colourbond steel fencing whipper snippers are fairly good, and the worst of all, backyard chainsaws on a nice quiet Sunday in Autumn and Winter!......

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by slowsnake

Has bugger all to do with air pollution, but everything to do with "noise pollution"
Personally I hate noisy mowers, leaf blowers ( in confined spaces ) as in courtyards with colourbond steel fencing whipper snippers are fairly good, and the worst of all, backyard chainsaws on a nice quiet Sunday in Autumn and Winter!......

Regardless of 2 stroke or electric whipper snippers, they make the same annoying sound if the user constantly wangs the colourbond fence. And theres a lot of houses with colourbond fences where i live. Chainsaws, yeah theyre loud, mine has a sticker that says 112db on it. But once i trimmed my trees, i havent really used it for my yard in 18 months. It just gets lent on the odd occasion to neighbors to save a buck trimming their trees as opposed to paying someone to do it. Even if they ask me to do the work as not everyone is confident useing a chainsaw, i use a bit of common courtesy, after lunch on a saturday and shut it off after each cut as the thing is still loud at idle. So say a combined cutting time of say 10 minutes over say 2 hours as you have to move stuff out of the way, plan the next cut etc, it doesnt get people disjointed. And trees dont grow overnight. The bloke at the end of my street got me off side with his chainsaw. So mine starts 1st time every time. I offered it up to him as he had spent by this stage about an hour just trying to get his started without much success. He turned down my offer as he was adimant his works. It did eventually start but he left it running the whole time, so another couple of hours, probably because it may not re start.

[roddy1960]

Do we or did we ever get this beauty in Australia ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFGjgcF9RzQ

On Toro in general ... Our bowls greenkeeper used to operate an electric mains powered green mower to do the 8 rink x 8 rink green . Not sure of the brand but it's pretty standard fare for many clubs . It finally carked it and they're not cheap to replace .

We are a double club for bowls and golf and we have a triplex Toro for the golf greens and a couple of walk behind greens mowers as back up . One of them is the Turf Master 1000 also made by Toro .. Been around for a good while already I think .

Glenn (greenkeeper} tried the petrol Turf Master 1000 on the bowls green last year while the club decided on a new bowls mower . He loved the Turf Master that much and it cut so well and damaged on the turns less that it ended up being what we went with ..

This Time Master walk behind lawn mower seems pretty decent and curious if anybody here has come across them ...

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by roddy1960

Do we or did we ever get this beauty in Australia ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFGjgcF9RzQ

On Toro in general ... Our bowls greenkeeper used to operate an electric mains powered green mower to do the 8 rink x 8 rink green . Not sure of the brand but it's pretty standard fare for many clubs . It finally carked it and they're not cheap to replace .

We are a double club for bowls and golf and we have a triplex Toro for the golf greens and a couple of walk behind greens mowers as back up . One of them is the Turf Master 1000 also made by Toro .. Been around for a good while already I think .

Glenn (greenkeeper} tried the petrol Turf Master 1000 on the bowls green last year while the club decided on a new bowls mower . He loved the Turf Master that much and it cut so well and damaged on the turns less that it ended up being what we went with ..

This Time Master walk behind lawn mower seems pretty decent and curious if anybody here has come across them ...

Toro walk-behind mowers are designed for the American market, where they keep lawns much taller than in Australia. As such, they are generally only tipping the grass at each mow. I have found American lawn mowers to struggle with lower cutting heights. The bar blade is also not as well suited to catching. I looked into getting a Toro a few times but like the John Deere I had, I spent more time unblocking the discharge shoot than the time it saved via it's wider cut.

I would only buy one of these Toro's if I had Tall Fescue and mowed religiously every week. Otherwise, they just block up too much.

[slowsnake]

Done a fair bit of travelling in regional WA, every smallish town with a bowls club, 2 greens size, all had synthetic surfaces, seems they worked OK, grass depth was varied by sand I think, locals and visitors liked it, but I only went for the cheap meals and grog!

And it saves labour costs and in particular water use!
So what are the pro's and cons of synthetic versus natural grass, if any!